Sir, – Eileen Lynch (Letters, April 29th) is the latest of your correspondents to criticise the improvement of the cycling infrastructure on Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park, and specifically the placing of cycle lanes on the road and the shielding of them from motor traffic with protective bollards. She considers that these "spiky poles" are "aesthetically appalling" and have seen the road "reduced to a narrow middle claustrophobic lane no wider than a rear back laneway".
It is important to note that the width of the road has not actually changed. There are simply some bollards on the road and part of it is reserved for cyclists. The change relates to what occupies parts of the road space, not its overall width. It is therefore interesting that Ms Lynch appears to have been content with the same space on the road being lined with parked cars for most of the time and frequent traffic congestion on the remainder of the road. It is only when cycling infrastructure spoils the view that there is a problem, it seems.
Indeed, if the availability of clear space on a wide road is so important to Ms Lynch’s architectural sensibilities, there are compelling reasons to suggest that the road has been improved on this metric. Bollards and cyclists occupy much less space at any given moment than the parked cars that used to line both sides of the road. – Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER
McMAHON,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – Eileen Lynch complains that the inclusion of a bike lane on Chesterfield Avenue reduces “the original broad sweep of the avenue” to a “narrow middle claustrophobic lane no wider than a rear back laneway”. Private motorists, it seems, shouldn’t just have an unhindered right of way through the public park. They must also have the appearance of grandeur given by an unnecessarily wide carriageway to soothe them on their route. – Yours, etc,
THOMAS LEGGE,
Berlin.